AAMC CARS Q pack score

[cardioplegia]

Hi everyone,

I tried the 120-question pack for CARS, and I ended up with 78% correct rate and 100 sec per question. I wanted to use this to know where I am before starting practicing CARS.

Is there anyway to correlate the percentage to a real score or make a rough estimation?

I started reading books and journals about half year ago hoping to help with my reading skills, because English is not my first language, so is there any category of reading material that might be particularly helpful? I am currently on a Greek Mythology book and The Economist.

Thank you.

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[aldol16]

Is there anyway to correlate the percentage to a real score or make a rough estimation?

No. The QPacks aren't too representative of the real thing (I think on the real MCAT, the passages are longer). Also, don't be too hard on yourself if you didn't do well on the first half of the first CARS QPack. Those are pretty difficult and sometimes the answers don't make much sense. The second half is much better and the second QPack is also great.

I started reading books and journals about half year ago hoping to help with my reading skills, because English is not my first language, so is there any category of reading material that might be particularly helpful? I am currently on a Greek Mythology book and The Economist.

You should read broadly. The MCAT will test you on topics from various fields (in the CARS section) so you should be familiar with types of reading from many different fields of study. I personally like reading op-eds in the NYTimes but there are many other viable options as well. The Economist is great. To add some diversity to the mix, you might want something more abstract, like any philosophical work.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

To follow up on Adol's comments. Aeon is a free website that has a lot of abstract work. But in all honesty I think the best way to be good at CARS is to just do a lot of CARS practice!

 

[cardioplegia]

To follow up on Adol's comments. Aeon is a free website that has a lot of abstract work. But in all honesty I think the best way to be good at CARS is to just do a lot of CARS practice!

Looks like a great website, thank you for this tip!

 

[cardioplegia]

No. The QPacks aren't too representative of the real thing (I think on the real MCAT, the passages are longer). Also, don't be too hard on yourself if you didn't do well on the first half of the first CARS QPack. Those are pretty difficult and sometimes the answers don't make much sense. The second half is much better and the second QPack is also great.



You should read broadly. The MCAT will test you on topics from various fields (in the CARS section) so you should be familiar with types of reading from many different fields of study. I personally like reading op-eds in the NYTimes but there are many other viable options as well. The Economist is great. To add some diversity to the mix, you might want something more abstract, like any philosophical work.

Thank you Aldol 🙂. Do you practice under limited time or you just try to make sure the answers are correct first before timing your self? Is TPR a better representation of the real thing? I felt like TPR was easier compared to AAMC, maybe I haven't done enough of TPR.

 

[aldol16]

Thank you Aldol 🙂. Do you practice under limited time or you just try to make sure the answers are correct first before timing your self? Is TPR a better representation of the real thing? I felt like TPR was easier compared to AAMC, maybe I haven't done enough of TPR.

For the QPacks, I didn't time myself because the timing on those passages is not really meaningful, since those passages are generally shorter than the real thing, I think. (That or it's longer, I can't quite remember which - only that it's not representative). TPR is also not very representative - the question types there are just completely different (I took the free FL from them only).

 

[TestingSolutions]

Hi everyone,

I tried the 120-question pack for CARS, and I ended up with 78% correct rate and 100 sec per question. I wanted to use this to know where I am before starting practicing CARS.

Is there anyway to correlate the percentage to a real score or make a rough estimation?

I started reading books and journals about half year ago hoping to help with my reading skills, because English is not my first language, so is there any category of reading material that might be particularly helpful? I am currently on a Greek Mythology book and The Economist.

Thank you.

@cardioplegia - This is a great question that many students have. I'll first write (with the hopes of not entering into an argument) that what's been written about the CARS question pack passages being shorter is not accurate. You can prove this for yourself. Just go in, copy and paste the passages into word and you'll see that each passage ranges between 500 and 600 words, which is the length of a CARS passage on the MCAT. Our calculations show that the average length of the CARS passages in the first question pack is approximately 585 words, with a few passages being slightly over the 600 word mark, but none being less than 500, as other users have asserted. These passages are not shorter than the real thing, and are in fact very much representative of the length of passages you'll see on test day. I do think the first half of Qpack 1 is harder than the second half, and that Qpack 2 is slightly more representative of the actual difficulty of the test. I think scoring 78% is great, especially if you're just starting out. That is right in the 126 and 127 range (74th to 83rd percentile). You should be happy with that. I think you're much better served doing lots of CARS passages than trying to read difficult material. The problem with just reading a lot is that you're not practicing answering questions. You don't get points for reading. you get points for answering questions. It's critical to practice both skills if you want your practice to translate into better scores on the CARS.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Never take CARS practice passages untimed. Ever. Not only doesn't it help you, but it actually hurts you because you're building bad habits that you'll have to undo later down the road. I wrote an article for SDN a while back on ways to improve on CARS and #2 in particular discusses timing.

Best of luck on your MCAT!

 

[Chromium Surfer]

@cardioplegia - This is a great question that many students have. I'll first write (with the hopes of not entering into an argument) that what's been written about the CARS question pack passages being shorter is not accurate. You can prove this for yourself. Just go in, copy and paste the passages into word and you'll see that each passage ranges between 500 and 600 words, which is the length of a CARS passage on the MCAT. Our calculations show that the average length of the CARS passages in the first question pack is approximately 585 words, with a few passages being slightly over the 600 word mark, but none being less than 500, as other users have asserted. These passages are not shorter than the real thing, and are in fact very much representative of the length of passages you'll see on test day. I do think the first half of Qpack 1 is harder than the second half, and that Qpack 2 is more slightly more representative of the actual difficulty of the test. I think scoring 78% is great, especially if you're just starting out. That is right in the 126 and 127 range (74th to 83rd percentile). You should be happy with that. I think you're much better served doing lots of CARS passages than trying to read difficult material. The problem with just reading a lot is that you're not practicing answering questions. You don't get points for reading. you get points for answering questions. It's critical to practice both skills if you want your practice to translate into better scores on the CARS.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Never take CARS practice passages untimed. Ever. Not only doesn't it help you, but it actually hurts you because your building bad habits that you'll have to undo later down the road. I wrote an article for SDN a while back on ways to improve on CARS and #2 in particular discusses timing.

Best of luck on your MCAT!

How feasible is it to make a 6 point jump in CARS? Say going from a 123 to 129 if we are using a conservative, harsher estimate.

Edit: I think I commented on one of your other threads saying I started off at 125 I didn't say this to be disingenuous. I was on pace for a 126 after 7 passages so I figured 125 was within reach especially based on my prior experiences with reading tests. When I was going through your first FL I was missing 1 and sometimes 2 per passage. Then I missed like 6 over the last 2 passages out of nowhere

My test date would be in late April or early May.

My background in standardized testing is getting a 99th percentile on the PSAT and practice ACT verbal and a 93rd percentile on the real SAT with minimal studying. Does that make a difference? I'm also going through you're 30 day guide. I finish very quickly but my intuition seems to be off at times and my scores fluctuate wildly. Most times I'll miss only 1 question in a section however randomly I'll miss 3 or 4 and that has been discouraging.

I have no problem working hard and plan to do so but I'm just worried that I don't have a enough time to consistently hit the 129 I'm aiming for.

My scores per passage are also fluctuating with TPR verbal as well :/

 

[TestingSolutions]

How feasible is it to make a 6 point jump in CARS? Say going from a 123 to 129 if we are using a conservative, harsher estimate.

Edit: I think I commented on one of your other threads saying I started off at 125 I didn't say this to be disingenuous. I was on pace for a 126 after 7 passages so I figured 125 was within reach especially based on my prior experiences with reading tests. When I was going through your first FL I was missing 1 and sometimes 2 per passage. Then I missed like 6 over the last 2 passages out of nowhere

My test date would be in late April or early May.

My background in standardized testing is getting a 99th percentile on the PSAT and practice ACT verbal and a 93rd percentile on the real SAT with minimal studying. Does that make a difference? I'm also going through you're 30 day guide. I finish very quickly but my intuition seems to be off at times and my scores fluctuate wildly. Most times I'll miss only 1 question in a section however randomly I'll miss 3 or 4 and that has been discouraging.

I have no problem working hard and plan to do so but I'm just worried that I don't have a enough time to consistently hit the 129 I'm aiming for.

My scores per passage are also fluctuating with TPR verbal as well :/

@Chromium Surfer - I think anyone who doesn't worry about the MCAT is in for a rude wake up call come a month after test day. I think your situation is very much the normal situation to be in. You've got plenty of time to study so there's absolutely no reason for you to worry. A 123 is roughly 31 raw questions correct (plus or minus one or two.) And a 129 is around 46 raw questions correct. So to get to your goal score, you need to get 15 more questions correct on a CARS section. If you've given yourself five months to study, this correlates with you seeing an improvement of 3 questions per month. Which is very do-able. (very do-able). If you're not having timing problems, I'd recommend that you start focusing in on the keyword review we recommend on Day 9 – How to Use Keywords. I also think you could benefit from doing one or two deep reviews per day (Day 29 – Putting it All Together: How to Review an Entire CARS Practice Test). You've said your timing is solid, so unless that gets out of wack, continue stair stepping you way up to 9 passages. I'd add another passage every other week. If you're doing three a day, do the keyword review on all three and do a deep review on the one that you struggled the most. This will probably translate into 1.5 to 2 hours of CARS six days a week. If you do this for the next month or two, I have no doubt you'll pick up 6+ questions and feel more on track. One nice thing about the CARS is that it lends itself to a slow and steady study approach. You can make slow, marginal gains over time and before you know it, you're scoring in the topic tier of test takers without ever having worked crazy hard like some of the other sections require. CARS Success = Time Invested*.

Best of luck and let us know if there's any way we can help.

*Time well spent as outlined in our guide.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

Hi everyone,

I tried the 120-question pack for CARS, and I ended up with 78% correct rate and 100 sec per question. I wanted to use this to know where I am before starting practicing CARS.

Is there anyway to correlate the percentage to a real score or make a rough estimation?

I started reading books and journals about half year ago hoping to help with my reading skills, because English is not my first language, so is there any category of reading material that might be particularly helpful? I am currently on a Greek Mythology book and The Economist.

Thank you.

Go to reddit.com/r/mcat and look at the spreadsheet with users' actual scores and scores on various practice materials. The general consensus is that CARS qpack 1 is extremely difficult and 78% under timed conditions is great. Lot's of 7x% scorers reporting 129+ on the real thing.